YouTube Music Statistics: 125M Subscribers, 2.5B Viewers

Two services in one

1. 125 million subscribers

In early 2025, YouTube announced that its Music and Premium plans had passed 125 million subscribers worldwide. Premium bundles ad-free video with the full YouTube Music app, so a single plan covers both.¹

2. About 82.6 million music-only subscribers

Analyst firm MIDiA counts only part of that total as true music subscribers, roughly 82.6 million, which puts YouTube Music in fifth place worldwide.²

3. Around 10% of the global market

Measured against all paying music subscribers on the planet, YouTube Music holds about one tenth of the market.³

4. The fastest grower

In 2024, YouTube Music was the fastest-growing of the major streaming services and the only one whose growth actually accelerated year over year.⁴

5. Record jump in early 2026

YouTube posted another record quarterly increase in paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2026, with music doing much of the heavy lifting.⁵

6. $13.99 a month in the US

YouTube Premium, which bundles in YouTube Music, has been priced at $13.99 per month in the US, with a recent move to $15.99 announced for 2026.⁶

The giant behind the service

7. More than 2.5 billion users

YouTube itself has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, a reach advantage that no pure-play music service can match.⁷

8. About 2.6 billion listen to music there

Industry estimates put the number of people who use YouTube to listen to music at around 2.6 billion, most of them on the free, ad-supported tier.⁸

9. Free and ad-supported

Unlike most rivals, YouTube Music can be used for free indefinitely with ads. That keeps the funnel into paid plans enormous.⁹

10. Most-viewed artist of 2024: Alka Yagnik

Indian playback singer Alka Yagnik logged 19.1 billion YouTube views in 2024, her fifth straight year as the most-viewed artist on the platform globally.¹⁰

11. A core music discovery channel

YouTube is one of the most important places people find new music in the US: surveys put it ahead of Spotify and public radio as a source.¹¹

What YouTube pays the music industry

12. Over $8 billion in a year

Between July 2024 and June 2025, YouTube paid more than $8 billion to the music industry across ads and subscriptions combined.¹²

13. $2 billion more than in 2022

That payout was about $6 billion as recently as 2022, meaning YouTube has added roughly $2 billion to its annual contribution to music in just a few years.¹³

14. The "twin engine" of ads and subs

YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen describes the business as a "twin engine": both ads and subscriptions feed real money back to artists, labels, and publishers.¹⁴

15. Goal: overtake Spotify

YouTube has publicly stated it wants to become the music industry’s largest single payer. For context, Spotify paid out a record $10 billion to the industry in 2024.¹⁵

YouTube Music in the US

16. About 27.9 million US paying subscribers

Out of the 125 million worldwide total, roughly 27.9 million YouTube Music and Premium paying subscribers live in the United States.¹⁶

17. Roughly 7.1% of the US streaming market

By share of paid subscribers, YouTube Music holds about 7.1% of the US music streaming market, behind Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.¹⁷

18. Music Premium for $10.99 a month

Music-only Premium has been priced at $10.99 per month in the US, with a recent increase pushing some plans higher in 2026.¹⁸

19. Family for $22.99, students around $7.99

The family plan, which covers up to six people in one household, has been $22.99 per month, with the student plan around $7.99.¹⁹

20. Premium Lite at $7.99 since March 2025

YouTube launched its cheaper Premium Lite tier in the US in March 2025 at $7.99 per month. It removes ads from most videos but does not include YouTube Music.²⁰

History, Recap, and AI

21. Launched in November 2015 with YouTube Red

The original YouTube Music app shipped in November 2015 alongside the subscription service then known as YouTube Red, which later became YouTube Premium.²¹

22. Fully relaunched in May 2018

In May 2018, YouTube relaunched the service with a redesigned mobile app, a new web player, and AI-powered recommendations, positioning it as a direct rival to Spotify and Apple Music.²²

23. Replaced Google Play Music by December 2020

YouTube Music fully replaced Google Play Music by December 2020, with a migration tool that moved playlists, uploads, and purchases over to the new app.²³

24. Dream Track AI uses star vocals

Through Dream Track, built on Google’s Lyria AI model, YouTube lets a small group of Shorts creators generate short tracks that mimic the voices of artists who opted in.²⁴

25. Recap is YouTube’s Wrapped

Each year, YouTube’s Music Recap gives subscribers a personalized rundown of their top songs, artists, moods, and even podcasts, the company’s answer to Spotify Wrapped.²⁵